Over 240,000 Flemsh residents have so far checked their land for potential risks via the ‘De Grote Grondvraag’ website, Flemish Environment Minister Zuhal Demir (N-VA) announced on Sunday.
Focusing on the discovery of potential risk grounds – areas where pollution may occur – ‘De Grote Grondvraag’ is an initiative from the Public Waste Agency of the Flemish Region (OVAM). The risk of soil contamination in these zones gives cause for necessary soil examination.
Action on soil contamination
The initiative, according to Minister Demir, has proven successful, with the website receiving over 520,000 unique views. This implies that a vast number of individuals are fundamentally interested in soil quality.
OVAM has conducted preliminary investigations on over 50,000 of the 85,000 flagged risk grounds. This means that an initial soil investigation has been completed on 60% of Flemish risk grounds.
Of the investigations, 68% (34,000) required no further action. However, for the remaining, approximately 16,000 cases, additional descriptive soil investigations were instigated. As of now, 14,200 of these have been accomplished, while half of the finished cases indicate a need for a soil decontamination project.
The PFAS issue also significantly impacts ‘De Grote Grondvraag’. Due to this problem, 838 fire locations have been identified, 127 of which are not PFAS-suspicious. Investigations are required for the remaining 711 locations, with initial probes now completed at 544 sites.
